N-Scale Model Railroad Layout

I've been an enthusiast of Model Railroading since I was a kid. My parents had an
American Flyer set that was always put under the Christmas Tree. That was sold
many, many years ago.
In my early 20s, my interest reared it's head. I bought a few HO Scale
locomotives and some rolling stock. Raising a new family prevented spending
money on things that weren't necessary. Besides, there was no room anyway.
Things got better and I looked at N-Scale. Sold the HO and bought some N-Scale.
Still didn't have room for permanent Layout.
Fast forward to 2005 some 20 years later. Stopped at a big Hobby Shop and
looked at Trains. GOOD GOD!!!! The stuff available was unbelievable. And DCC,
what the hell is that?!?! In 2008 we moved into a new house. I was able to set-up
a permanent DCC layout. Not huge but more than I ever had.
Since I do have other things to do, my Model Railroad is isn't completely done.
Some things have to be finished and/or added. All Locos are DCC and some with
sound. The California Zephyr passenger cars have single function decoders to
turn the lights on/off in the individual cars. This is how the layout looks now.
Many of the photos are before I got it this far and many were shot hand held so
they're a bit fuzzy.
I will try to explain some of the things I did. Hope you enjoy.........

THE BUILD
Layout is 'L' shaped, long leg 10' feet, short leg 6'. Both are 3' wide between the
frame. The frame was built with 3/4"x 2 1/2" boards. 3/4"x 1 1/2" boards were
screwed to the inside flush with the bottom of the 2 1/2" boards. Masonite was
cut to lay inside the frame. Scenery was done on 1" thick Styrofoam that was cut
and glued together to make three separate pieces that will lay inside the frame.
Two pieces for the long leg and one for the short leg. You'll understand why I did
it this way when you see the photos. All track and switches are Kato Unitrack. I
wish I had taken more photos while I was building.

Making the separate pieces, I could take
them off the board and sit them on the
floor to work on. When they were all
done, I put them on the board and
blended the seems together with scenery.
Many of the buildings were built on a
piece of 1/4" foam board. When done just
put them on the layout and blended them
in.

Sidewalks for the Town were made from a piece of acrylic tub surround that I had
laying around. Scribed some joint lines in it and painted concrete color.
All pavement markings are vinyl. I did the artwork with Corel Draw X5 and had a
local shop cut them. Striping is pinstripe tape made by line o tape.

TOWN
Since N-Scale is too small to put interiors in the buildings, window treatments
were drawn with Corel Draw and glued inside the building. I used a bit of "Artistic
Liberty" on the subjects. Lighting source for all the buildings is 13V DC with a
combination of Incandescent bulbs and LEDs.

INDUSTRIAL AREA
All signage was drawn with Corel Draw and printed with my ALP printer on decal
paper. I then applied the decals to the buildings or plastic card stock which I then
glued to the buildings. Corel Draw comes with lots of Vector Clip Art that includes
Industrial Warning Signs. All I had to do was scale them down.

I made the loads for the Flat Cars from scraps of Bass Wood I had left from a
wood Sailing Ship I restored for a friend. The F-16 is actually 1/144 Scale which is
a bit big. Looks neat anyway.

RURAL AREA
I used lots of Woodland Scenics products. However, I used Elmer's glue to hold
most stuff down and mixed it with water to set everything once the straight
Elmer's was dry. Woodland Scenics website has lots of "How To" videos on using
all their stuff. If you're new to this, check them out. Well worth the time. Scenery
is not finished in some areas.

LAYOUT TODAY
Again, many of the photos are before I got it this far and many were shot hand
held so they're a bit fuzzy. Photos are in no particular order.

AIRCRAFT SCALE MODELING

AUTO SCALE MODELING

A Friend is just getting into N Scale and hasn't learned to program decoders yet.
Too busy building the Layout. I brought his Loco home to change the address for
him. Steam Loco with Sound I got to play with for a while. Runs, sounds and looks
great!!! I didn't have any steam but I do now........ Photos to follow......